Are you looking to make your car more secure when you're not parked somewhere safe? Today, smugglers are looking for anything valuable to steal from just anywhere.
It's a common problem: you go out on a long road trip and stop at a hotel for the night, only to find that your roof rack is gone when you wake up. This can be a huge hassle, especially if you rely on your roof rack to transport bulky items.
This blog post will discuss eight ways to prevent your roof rack from being stolen. Follow these tips, and you can rest assured that your belongings will be safe while you're on the road!
1. Inbuilt Security Feature
The roof box should have an inbuilt locking security feature or a backup lock so that it can be secured even without the use of a locking bar. In addition, you must have a roof rack that comes with security features.
These features include locks, straps, and other mechanisms that can help protect your rack from theft. You should also lock every compartment on your roof rack when not using it.
2. Get a Locking Bar
The other way to protect your roof rack is to use a locking bar. This bar can be secured to the vehicle's frame or another part and locked with a padlock. Locking the bar will keep away thieves since they will have to cut it down to access the rack.
In addition, if the vehicle already has an alarm system, it will go off, and you will know someone is tampering with the car. Finally, you could run a robust cable through the roof bars and roof rack to connect them. Opening this cable should only be via the use of a secret code.
3. Get a roof rack with a lock.
Protect your roof rack by locking it whenever you leave it or not using it. Locking the rack will make it very difficult for thieves to steal it, especially if they don't have tools or other devices they could use to crack the roof rack open. You must lock all of the compartments on your roof rack when you are not using them.
In fact, this should be a norm that you ought to make your family members adhere to if you want always to keep your roof rack safe. Make them lock it anytime they are not using it, always keeping it secure.
4. Have an alarm on the vehicle
An alarm on the vehicle is very essential. It will go off anytime someone touches anything on the car. The best part about an alarm is that it will not just go off when the rack is touched alone; thieves cannot steal even the other components such as wheels or the side mirrors.
Thieves will have to think twice before trying something on your car because they don't want an alarm going off and attracting too much attention from bystanders or security guards.
5. Get a GPS
Install a GPS tracking mechanism on your roof rack. This will allow you to keep track of your belongings if they get stolen and give you information about where the smuggler might be taking them. You can use this information to contact the authorities and alert them to the situation or try to recover the roof rack yourself.
With a GPS, you will help the authorities trace your roof rack faster. Of course, after such instances, no smuggler will want to go poking into your stuff once they discover there is a GPS tracker around.
6. Avoid exposing your stuff.
If there is any chance that someone could see what's on your roof rack and see something valuable, you can bet you will be a target. Make sure that it has a cover over it at all times. This will prevent anyone from knowing what's in your compartments, which means that they won't be able to target specific items when stealing from you. Your security starts with you.
Just like how you do not want everyone to know the amount of money you are carrying with you, keep whatever you are carrying in the roof rack a secret, and it will not be a target.
7. Change your locks
If someone does manage to steal something from your roof rack, make sure that you change the locks immediately. If the smuggler knows you, they could follow you around to see if you have learned your lesson. Failure to change the locks will mean they will still steal something else and keep doing it for a long.
Whether they used a master key to gain access, you should not let that lock remain there since it is already vulnerable. If you come across another smuggler with a master key, they will also steal from you.
8. Personalize the roof rack
Personalize your roof rack or cargo box. Personalizing the roof box and rack could also keep thieves away. For example, you could have it painted in unique bright colors that will attract attention when stolen. Also, write some message on the roof box that no thief would want to be seen carrying. Or even better, have your name and contact number written on it.
That is for the case of a portable cargo box that you had carried on top of the car. It is an effective way of preventing theft. If thieves see that there is a lot of attention drawn to the roof box, they are less likely to try and steal it in the first place.
Wrapping Up
Since you already know thieves could easily target your roof rack and anything that you may be caring the best decision you could ever make is to install an alarm system in your car. Then, when anyone comes a little too close to the vehicle, you will know something is happening.
The locks part is also essential and keeps your roof rack intact on the car. The smuggler will struggle to get the roof rack off the car.